Will BJP ask for RS seat from Andhra?

As four Rajya Sabha seats from Andhra Pradesh are going to fall vacant on June 21 this year, intense lobbying has begun in the ruling YSR Congress party for the nomination to the upper house.

The vacancies will arise due to the completion of the term of the sitting Rajya Sabha members – V Vijayasai Reddy, Suresh Prabhu, Y S Chowdary and T G Venkatesh. 

While Vijayasai Reddy is from the YSR Congress, the other three members are from the BJP. Two of them – Y S Chowdary and T G Venkatesh had won on the Telugu Desam Party ticket and defected to the BJP soon after the defeat of the TDP in the 2019 assembly elections. 

Only Suresh Prabhu had won from the BJP, as part of the alliance between the TDP and the BJP between 2014 and 2018. He was the Union railway minister then.

Needless to say, the YSRC is going to win all the four seats, as the TDP doesn’t have enough strength to win even a single seat and the BJP has no representation in the state assembly.

According to highly placed sources in the YSRC, party president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has already finalised the names for three Rajya Sabha seats and kept the decision on the fourth seat in abeyance.

While Vijay Sai Reddy is sure to get the re-nomination, the two others who are most likely to get the Rajya Sabha nomination are: Beeda Mastan Rao from Nellore and noted criminal lawyer-cum-film producer S Niranjan Reddy.

Sources in the party said Jagan has kept the fourth seat pending as he is expecting a request from the BJP central leadership. The issue might come up during his meeting with Prime Minister on Tuesday.

“In any case, BJP might not renominate Suresh Prabhu to Rajya Sabha. If it all it does, it might ask for the RS nomination for industrialist Adani family. If Modi doesn’t make any such request, it is presumed that the BJP is not interested in the RS seat from Andhra Pradesh,” sources said.

In such a case, Jagan might give the RS nomination to an independent person of his choice. The name of All India BC Welfare Association president R Krishnaiah is doing rounds in the party circles as the possible RS candidate on behalf of the YSRC.

But there is a glitch. He is from Telangana and there might be opposition from the other BC leaders from AP. In any case, if Jagan takes a decision, nobody would be able to question him.

There is also a talk that Jagan might consider the candidature of Marri Rajasekhar from Guntur district. He was promised to be made a minister in the state during the 2019 elections, but could not do so for various reasons.